Continuous shake strip and method of manufacture



J. BRADY Aug. l, 1967 CONTINUOUS SHAKE STRIP AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURE C5 Sheets-Sheet l Filed April 19, 1965 INVENTOR Jashua Brady Attorney Aug. l, 1967 J. BRADY 3,333,384

CONTINUOUS SHAKE STRIP AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURE Filed April 19, 1965 5 sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Joshua Brady Aug. .1, 1967 3,333,384

CONTINUOUS SNAKE STRIP AND METHOD OF MANUFAOTURE J. BRADY 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed April 19, 1965 Airorney United States Patent O 3,333,384 CONTINUOUS SHAKE STRIP AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURE Joshua Brady, 2360 Buena Vista Ave., Walnut Creek, Calif. 94596 Filed Apr. 19, 1965, Ser. No. 449,128 5 Claims. (Cl. 52-557) This invention relates to a novel continuous shake or shingle strip for use as roong or siding in building construction, and a method of manufacturing the same.

Wooden shakes and shingles are widely used in the building industry today for covering the roofs and sides of buildings. These generally comprise individual shakes or shingles of varying width, usually, in the case of shakes, approximately twenty-four inches in length and tapering from endA to end in thickness from approximately one inch down to zero, and, in the case of shingles, of approximately sixteen inches in length and tapering from approximately three-eighths of an inch down to zero in thickness from end to end. In present methods of applying shakes or shingles a layer of wooden sheathing of nominal one inch thickness is rst secured to the rafters or studs of the building. The individual shakes or shingles are then nailed to the sheathing in overlapping rows starting at the bottom of the roof or sidewall and working upward with layers of roong felt inserted -between successive layers of shakes at their thin ends and overlapping onto the wooden sheathing.

Conventional shakes are smooth on their lower surf ace and rough on their upper surface. This makes it necessary to maintain avminimum slope of the roof to insure proper water ydrainage therefrom and prevent rain from being blown upslope by the Wind between successive layers of shakes. In fact, it has been found that it is impractical to use conventional types of shakes on roofs unless the pitch is at least equal to a four inch vertical rise for each twelve inch horizontal run of the roof.

The principal disadvantages of hand-laid shake roofs are the high cost of the required materials and the high cost of labor for installation. As is well known to those skilled in the art, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make this desirable type of roof available to owners of homes and business buildings at reasonable labor and materials costs.

. The prior art in rooting and siding products is replete with attempts to simulate the effect of individual handlaid shakes at a lower installed cost. However, none of these efforts has succeeded in producing individual, discrete shakes of natural wood, each separated from its neighbors yby a denite distance as in the case of the expensive hand-laid variety.

It is therefore a principal object of my invention to provide a novel shake or shingle `and a method of manufacturing same which will greatly decrease the total cost of building construction, and yet which simulates with greatly enhanced realism the appearance and performance of separate hand-laid wooden shakes.

It is another object of my invention to provide a novel shake or shingle which will be simple, economical, and

easy to apply to roofs or sides of buildings.

It is still another object of my invention to provide a shake or shingle construction which will eliminate the need for an under layer of Wooden sheathing.

It is yet another object of my invention to provide a shake or shingle construction which will eliminate the need for rooting felt in order to be rain-tight.

It is finally an object of my invention to provide a shake or shingle construction which will permit the use of shakes on roofs having much atter slopes than is possible with conventional shakes.

3,333,384 Patented Aug. l, 1967 ICC I have discovered what I have called a continuous shake or shingle strip and an economical method for its manufacture to accomplish all of the foregoing objectives. Essentially, my strip comprises a one piece assembly of discrete wood shakes or shingles of redwood, cedar,` or other suitable wood, permanently and .adhesively joined to a strip of exterior grade plywood prior to shipment for construction ,of a building. The shake strip and the shingle strip are of similar basic construction, the differences being only those required by differences in dimensions, particularly as lbetween roofing and siding. These are of a secondary nature and in no way affect my basic invention as will be more fully brought out below.

The novel construction of my strip permits a carpenter to apply an eight foot long section of shakes or shingles directly to roof rafters or to wall studs without the need for separate sheathing and while handling only one piece of material. My construction also eliminates the necessity for use of layers of roofing paper or felt beneath successive layers of shakes.

I have discovered further a method of manufacturing my shake or shingle strip which is highly eflcient, rapid and economical. I am able to show a saving in total installed Icost, including all labor and materials for the complete roof or sidewall from the rafters upward or from the studs outward, of from thirty percent to fifty percent of the present cost of conventional shakes or shingles in place. These savings in construction costs will become evident to those skilled in the art from a description of my invention which follows and with special reference to the figures in which:

FIG. l is a perspective view showing the initial steps in the manufacture of my invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective showing later steps.

FIG. 3 is a perspective showing still later steps.

FIG. 4 is a cross-section view of such a panel as illustrated in FIG. 2 showing in detail the method of cutting the panel into continuous shake strips.

FIG. 5a shows the method of laying; my continuous shake strips on a roof structure.

FIG. 5b shows the method of laying my continuous shingle strips on the side of a building.

FIG. 5c shows the appearance of my shingle strips from the inside of a -building under construction.

FIG. 6 is a perspective showing an alternate method of manufacture of the shake and shingle strips.

Referring now more particularly to FIG. l, there is seen a plurality of core-lumber pieces 1 which are usually of cedar or redwood. These are a combination of widths from l x 4, l x 6, l x 8, 1 x l0, and/or l x 12` inch sizes dressed on two sides and of length from 48 to 50 inches. These pieces are arranged in random order of widths to give the appearance of rustic shakes or shingles when mounted in place on a roof or wall as will be more clearly shown below. In FIG. 1 the `pieces are in parallel arrangement with approximately a inch gap 3 between each core piece and its neighbor. Two plywood panels 2 are then arranged as shown with glue applied to the entire inner surfaces of the panels. When pressed and cured, these surfaces form the glue lines 4 as is best seen in FIG. 2. The plywood used is of exterior type employing a waterproof phenolic glue and in the illustration shown, the plywood panels are 3A; inch thick X 50 inches wide x inches long. These dimensions, of course, may be varied without departing from the basic teachings of my invention. There are some advantages in certain plywood mills to making these assemblies from plywood which is considerably longer and wider than that shown here. The result in any case is a glued-up assembly having the appearance shown in FIG. 2. The extensions of the plywood panels 2a at one end, and of the core lumber 2b at the other, provide for end-lap joints between successive shake strips when the strips are applied to roof or wall as will later be seen in connection with FIG. a and FIG. 5b.

The next important step in my method of manufacture is to saw-cut this glued-up assembly in such a way as to produce rapidly and economically the shake strip of my invention. I do this by making a plurality of parallel diagonal cuts 5, as shown by the dotted lines in FIG. 2 and kerfs 5 in FIG. 4. For this purpose I use a saw which may be of the band type or reciprocating gang type, the blade traveling in direction A, FIG. 2, and the cut progressing in direction B. Reference to FIG. 4 will show more clearly the position of saw cuts or kerfs 5. The composite of material between two saw cuts 5 is shown shaded in FIG. 4. This shaded portion, when separated from the assembly is now cut at 11 into two separate identical complete shake or shingle strips. An uneven cut or a simulated rustic cut is produced at 11 by a band saw whose movable saw guides are controlled by a cam. One complete strip is shown in FIG. 3, and as a cross-hatched section in FIG. 4.

VIt may now be seen in FIG. 3 how the diagonally cut core pieces take on the appearance of individual shakes or shingles being spaced apart by distance 3 and securely glued to backing strip 2 which was formerly a part of the outer plywood panels. Each shake or shingle has a tapered section 12 and a section of uniform thickness 13, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Referring again to FIG. 4, one of my diagonal cuts 5 is started at point 6 on one outer surface of the glued-up assembly and ends at point 7 on the opposite outer surface. I have found a taper of one in sixteen or an angle of approximately 31/2 to be one of the satisfactory slopes for producing a good shake or shingle strip.

Using the typical dimensions which I have given and a slope 1 in 16 for saw cuts 5, and also allowing for a core-lumber thickness of three-quarters inch and a oneeighth inch saw kerf, I obtain by the method outlined above a plurality of shakes having a tapered section 12 ten inches long, and a section 13 of uniform thickness ve-eighths inch which is seven inches long. This is seen best from a study of FIG. 4. I may use any convenient combination of dimensions to produce any desired thickness and length of shingle strip to provide for the most economical usage of material and to minimize wastage.

As an important alternative to the method shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 for producing my glued-up assembly, I may combine the steps of manufacturing the plywood itself with that of manufacturing my assembly in order to effect greater economy in production. The method is illustrated in FIG. 6 and consists of beginning with two face veneers 17, two back veneers 17a, two sets of crossband or core-ply veneers 18 and the same pieces of redwood or cedar core lumber 1 as before, the core lumber being arranged as in FIG. 1. Glue is applied to both sides of the core pieces 1 and to both sides of the cross-band 18 and the entire lay-up is assembled in a manner similar to the manufacture of standard plywood panels which is well known to those skilled in the art. After hot-press curing, the glued-up assembly is cut along lines 5 and lines 11 in FIG. 4 to form separate shake or shingle strips in the same manner as described above.

This second method of manufacture oifers economies that will be important in medium and large scale production because of the savings realized from combining all lay-up work into one operation and from combining two hot-press cycles into one. In addition, steam-escape channels are provided by the three-eighths inch spaces 3 between the core lumber pieces 1, and the number of rejected panels from the well-known steam blisters and steam blows will therefore be reduced.

Referring now to FIG. 5a, FIG. 5b, and FIG. 5c, there is seen illustrated the method of applying both my shake strip and shingle strip to a building. The usual length for the strip is 96" so that end-lap joints will occur directly over rafters or studs in either of the two common spacings of 16" or 24 between centers of rafters or studs.

In FIG. 5a the strips are shown being placed in position and nailed on roof rafters 14. The various components bear the same numbers as shown in FIGS 1 through 4 inclusive.

In FIG. 5b there is seen my continuous shake strip or shingle strip siding being placed in position and nailed to wall studs 15.

In FIG. 5c there is shown the back surface appearance of my shake strip or shingle strip siding as seen from the interior of the building. This back-side appearance is similar when the product is mounted on rafters as roofing. In the siding application I may employ a rabbet cut 16 along the lower edge of each row of shakes or shingles to produce a desirable shadow line effect, enhancing the appearance when mounted. This rabbet cut is seen also in FIG. 3.

The efiiciency, economy, and other advantages of this type of construction made possible through the use of my novel shake or shingle strip manufactured by my novel method should now be evident to those skilled in the art. In particular, it should be noted that my invention provides, within the thickness of the plywood sheathing alone, a unique weather lap of 5" between adjacent strips, measured up the roof in the case of rooting or vertically in the case of siding. This increases the weather tightness of the building and explains why I am able to apply my shake strip to roofs having a much atter pitch than is permissible in conventional roof construction.

Of course, variations may be made in the strip and method of manufacturing which I have described above without departing from my basic invention and I do not limit myself to the illustrations above, except as I do so in the claims which follow.

I claim:

1. The method of manufacturing a continuous strip of shakes for use on building exteriors comprising the steps:

positioning a plurality of elongated wooden members of rectangular cross-section between two elongated sheets of plywood,

said wooden members being parallel to and in predetermined space relation to each other; adhesively joining said members to said sheets of plywood thereby forming an assembly;

making a series of parallel diagonal cuts across said assembly, the plane of each of said cuts being at an acute angle to the plane of the outer surface of said plywood and the line of intersection of these two planes being parallel to the long dimension of said plywood, thereby cutting said assembly into a plurality of elongated strips;

cutting each of said 4strips longitudinally in half, said cuts being at right angles to said diagonal cuts.

2. The method of manufacturing a continuous st-rip of shakes for use on building exteriors comprising the steps:

positioning a plurality of elongated wooden members of rectangular cross-section having a thickness of approximately three-fourths of an inch between two elongated sheets of plywood, each having a thickness of approximately three-eighths of an inch,

said wooden members being parallel to and in predetermined space relation to each other; gluing said members to said sheets of plywood thereby forming an assembly; making a series of parallel diagonal cuts across said assembly,

said cuts having an angle of approximately three and one-half degrees to the outer surface of said plywood, having a direction of travel parallel to the long dimension of said plywood panels, the planes of said cuts being spaced from threeeighths to ve-eighths of an inch apart measured perpendicular to said planes thereby forming a plurality of strips;

cutting each of said strips longitudinally in half,

said cuts having an angle of ninety degrees with the planes of said diagonal cuts and a direction of travel parallel to the long dimension of said strips.

3. A continuous strip of shakes for construction of building exteriors comprising:

an elongated plywood backing strip of double-tapered cross-section;

a plurality of shake members having a partly rectangular longitudinal section and a partly tapered longitudinal section,

said tapered section having the same angle of taper as the cross-section of said backing strip;

said shake members being positioned along the length of said backing strip at right angles thereto and in parallel spaced relation to each other;

said shake members being further positioned across said backing strip so that said tapered sections of shake members and backing strip partly overlap;

said shake members being adhesively bonded to said vbacking strip.

4. A continuous strip of shakes for construction of building exterior comprising:

an elongated double-tapered backing strip of threeeighths inch plywood;

a plurality of shake members having a partly rectangular longitudinal section and a partly tapered longitudinal section;

said tapered section and said backing strip having a taper of sixteen to one;

said rectangular section having a thickness of veeighths of an inch;

said shake members being positioned along the length of said backing strip at right angles thereto and in parallel spaced relation to each other;`

said shake members being further positioned across said backing strip so that said tapered sections partly overlap;

said shake members being adhesively bonded to said backing strip.

5. The method 'of manufacturing a continuous strip of shakes having a plywood backing for use on building eX- teriors comprising the steps:

positioning a plurality of elongated wooden members of rectangular cross-section between two elongated back yeneers,

said Wooden members being parallel to and in predetermined space relation to each other; positioning two elongated cross-band veneers on opposite outside surfaces of said back veneers; positioning two elongated face veneers on opposite 'outside surfaces of said cross-band veneers;

applying adhesive to the surfaces of said veneers and said wooden members; joining said veneers and said wooden members to form a glued-up assembly;

making a series of parallel diagonal cuts across said assembly, the plane of each of said cuts being at an acute angle to the plane of the outer surface of said face veneers, and the line of intersection of these two planes being parallel to the long dimension of said veneers, thereby cutting said assembly into a plurality of elongated strips;

cutting each of said strips longitudinally in half at right angles to said diagonal cuts.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 26,898 1/1860 De Forest 52-313 329,828 11/1885 Green 52--313 1,028,703 6/1912 Fulton 52-313 3,003,205 10/ 1961 Frashour et al 52-560 X 3,262,239 7/ 1966 Mills 52-540 FRANK L. ABBOTT, Primary Examiner. A. C. PERHAM, Assistant Examiner. 

3. A CONTINUOUS STRIP OF SHAKES FOR CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDING EXTERIORS COMPRISING: AN ELONGATED PLYWOOD BACKING STRIP OF DOUBLE-TAPERED CROSS-SECTION; A PLURALITY OF SHAKE MEMBERS HAVING A PARTLY RECTANGULAR LONGITUDINAL SECTION AND A PARTLY TAPERED LONGITUDINAL SECTION, SAID TAPERED SECTION HAVING THE SAME ANGLE OF TAPER AS THE CROSS-SECTION OF SAID BACKING STRIP; SAID SHAKE MEMBERS BEING POSITIONED ALONG THE LENGTH OF SAID BACKING STRIP AT RIGHT ANGLES THERETO AND IN PARALLEL SPACED RELATON TO EACH OTHER; SAID SHAKE MEMBERS BEING FURTHER POSITIONED ACROSS SAID BACKING STRIP SO THAT SAID TAPERED SECTIONS OF SHAKE MEMBERS AND BACKING STRIP PARTLY OVERLAP; SAID SHAKE MEMBERS BEING ADHESIVELY BONDED TO SAID BACKING STRIP. 